![]() ![]() ![]() When Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire ministry was launched in 2000, I observed its rapid ascent to popularity with a skepticism similar to that of my youth. I was led to believe that all televangelists-besides, of course, Billy Graham-were hucksters and charlatans. I listened as my father criticized the narrow-minded and self-absorbed views of Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts. ![]() I watched Jimmy Swaggart make his tearful and hyperbolic confession of his adultery on national television. It’s no surprise therefore that I was raised as well with a strong skepticism about Christian “media personalities.” I grew up in the age of Ernest Angley’s healings and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s public shenanigans. I was taught not only to believe, and to love I was also taught how to think. I was taught then, from childhood, not only a solid foundation in Christianity, but also principles of empathy and engaged inquiry. addressed his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Prior to my conversion, I was raised in a fairly progressive Southern Baptist church, pastored at one time by one of the clergymen to whom Dr. ![]()
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